


Happiness in the Coming Year

by multi_angxls



Category: Chicago PD (TV)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Christmas Party, F/M, Fluff, Found Family, Unit!Family Moments, Upstead, cpd!ss2020, jay being a dumbass (again)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:48:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28186428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/multi_angxls/pseuds/multi_angxls
Summary: Hailey has a secret to tell Jay on Christmas Day-- a little, nine-month secret-- right as their friends come over for their annual Christmas Day feast.Part of the Chicago PD Secret Santa gift exchange on Tumblr :)
Relationships: Jay Halstead & Hailey Upton, Jay Halstead/Hailey Upton
Comments: 4
Kudos: 70





	Happiness in the Coming Year

**Author's Note:**

  * For [haileys_jay](https://archiveofourown.org/users/haileys_jay/gifts).



> Maybe it’s my mommy issues, maybe it’s the enraging way that the One Chicago writers never let their female characters have successful pregnancies, maybe it’s my impatience at the fact that Upstead still isn’t together yet. But I will NEVER not want to write pregnant!Hailey Upton. Upstead deserves to be cute ass parents!! This is a gift for the CPD Secret Santa 2020 on Tumblr. I hope you like your gift @haileys_jay!!
> 
> (Also I might have gone a little overboard because I really wasn't expecting this to be nearly 9K words but alas, here we are)

Hailey has never really liked Christmas. 

She’s not a Grinch or anything. She swears she isn’t. But ever since she was a kid, her experiences with the holiday have been nothing but disappointing. Her father would always get drunk and lash out at them on Christmas Day, they’d have to hide their presents under their beds, and their house smelled like beer and rotten turkey for weeks. Granted, Hailey is a grown woman now who’s formed happier, more meaningful traditions with Jay and all of their friends; the people who feel more like family than her own blood. But that small part of her, buried deep inside, still goes into the holiday season anxious and uneasy. In general, it has never been a fun holiday for her. 

And it’s especially not fun when she starts throwing up a week or so before Christmas Eve. 

She’s curled up in bed, her face buried into Jay’s chest. It’s not snowing outside, but there’s already some on the ground and she can hear the wet snow being slushed around the streets by the cars speeding outside of their apartment. It’s a quiet morning, not to mention their only day off for the next week, so Jay’s still sleeping as the sunlight peaks through the windows. 

Hailey doesn’t know why, but as soon as she begins to sit up, a wave of nausea spreads over her. It’s the excruciating, unbearable nausea that only takes her seconds to realize it can’t be stopped. Before she knows it, she’s running into their bathroom and reaches the toilet just on time as she vomits. Thankfully, the quick reflexes needed in their line of work also comes in handy during situations like these. 

She must have food poisoning or something. Jay made the mistake of taking them to a new seafood restaurant last night and asking for the crab. _That’s it_ , she thinks. _That has to be it_. It’s easy for her to swear off seafood after that and to not speak of it again. 

Jay wakes up soon after she throws up. She hears him grumbling from their bed when he realizes she’s not there. More grumbles come from their bed— Jay’s not really a morning person and struggles to form coherent sentences. He finds her in the bathroom and strokes her hair. “Jesus. Are you okay?” 

“Yeah. I think it was the crab from last night,” she replies. He nods abashedly, feels guilty for accidentally causing her to get food poisoning. They use their day off to lounge around and Jay stays at her side, making sure she stays hydrated and easing her into eating a piece of toast. The vomiting drains so much of her energy but by the afternoon, she’s able to eat a little bit. They go to bed that night and Hailey expects to be totally and completely better the next morning. The crab has to be out of her system now, she figures, so she’ll be ready for work tomorrow. When she wakes up, she feels better, and diving into work at the precinct feels easy. 

Until it isn’t. 

Lunchtime comes and the second wave of nausea comes with it. This time, she only throws up once, but she’s hardly eaten all day. It makes no sense to her, and she cleans up in the bathroom of a gas station in between calls to make sure no one notices. She still feels a little queasy, but she loves her job. There’s no chance in hell she’s going to be sent home just because she’s a little under the weather. Jay is waiting for her in the squad car, finishing up a call from the precinct when she gets in. 

“Thanks, Kim,” he speaks into the phone before hanging up and turning his attention to her. “You good?” 

“Yeah,” she nods, inhaling sharply the way she always feels herself doing when she lies to Jay. Which isn’t often, or about anything important (“yes, babe, I totally loved Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back,” Hailey recalls herself lying to him a few weeks ago. She never understands the appeal of those movies.) Still, it makes her feel a little guilty. Her guilt is only overridden by the weir, ominous feeling she has. Some small pit forms in her stomach, and she gets this gut feeling that something is off. It doesn’t make sense for this to just be crab anymore, but with the singular symptom of nausea, it makes a self-diagnosis nearly impossible. Looking up possible illnesses brings her no comfort whatsoever. It’s a rookie mistake, really. She knows WebMD isn’t exactly a reliable resource, but it still ramps up her anxiety about the whole situation. 

“Oh, by the way,” he interrupts her train of thought on the ride back, “I know we said we were going to wait until Boxing Day to have people over for dinner but what if we invite Kev and Kim and Adam over on Christmas Day this year instead? Will’s out of town so we’re not really going to be seeing anyone else.” 

It isn’t something she had expected to come out of Jay’s mouth. Especially not right then, right there, when they’re technically working. The puzzled look on her face makes his eyes go wide and he starts backtracking. “W-well we don’t have to if you don’t want to. It’s just an idea, but we can do whatever you’re cool with, really.” “W-well we don’t have to if you don’t want to. It’s just an idea, but we can do whatever you’re cool with, really.” 

She sits there in the passenger seat of the car, frozen in the moment. He really is cute when he rambles after doing something he thinks she’ll give him shit for. And he knows all of the messy, complicated feelings she has around Christmas, so the fact that he’s asking now is sweet and heartwarming and just so… Jay. His eyes look her up and down nervously, unsure of what she’s going to say, but she only replies by cupping his face with her hand and crashing her lips into his when they stop at a red light. Pulling away is hard, but they’re both smiling like idiots when she does. “I’m assuming that’s a yes,” he replies, smirking. 

“It was, yeah,” she giggles. “That sounds perfect.”

They drive back to the precinct, but the bumpy ride on the snowy roads leading back to the precinct makes Hailey nauseous again. When they walk in, Jay heads back up to his desk. Hailey’s about to follow behind him, but is stopped in her tracks by someone calling out to her. 

“Upton, I need you over here for a second,” she hears Trudy’s voice from behind her calling out. She winces at the thought of having to walk down the same stairs that made her nauseous to walk up, but Jay’s already too far ahead of her to notice and Platt needs her, so she turns around and tries not to look down at her feet as she walks down to Trudy’s desk. 

“What’s up, Trudy?”

“You got some mail here for you,” she explains without even looking up. Hailey hunches over the front desk as Trudy absentmindedly shoved envelopes into her hand. “Court appearance, court appearance, bla bla bla… you know the rest.” Trudy looks up from her desk when Hailey only responds with a hard swallow and a short nod. Her brows furrow at the sight of her, and Hailey knows she’s busted. Shit. “Are you alright?” 

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she dismisses it. She doesn’t want to go home though, wants to keep working the case they’re working on right now, so she powers through her nausea and fatigue. “Just feeling a little nauseous. And achy,” she realizes, wriggling around and rubbing her shoulder. “I’m sure it’s nothing, though.” 

“Huh.” Trudy stands there observing Hailey, the gears in her head clearly spinning. 

“What?” 

“Nothing, just- well. You sound…” 

“I know, I know. I sound sick. But I want to keep working. It’s nothing, I’ll be totally fine. I promise.” 

“Actually, I was going to say that you sound, well… pregnant.” 

_Pregnant._ The word sends Hailey’s heart beating fast, her head spinning and blurry. “Pregnant?” Her voice comes out mousy and stunned. Trudy nods, putting a hand on her shoulder. Hailey blinks, shaking her head. “No. No, that’s not possible. No, because Jay and I aren’t married yet.” It sounds stupid when she blurts it out, but it's all she can think of saying. She doesn’t know how this happened. They’re always super safe, although admittedly, things can get a little wild sometimes in the sex department. There’s a certain night she remembers two months ago after their three year anniversary involving tequila and rose petals. But she and Jay have always been careful. _Is this really happening?_

Trudy chuckles a little bit. “I hate to break it to you sister, but these types of things don’t always wait until they hear the ‘I do’. They’re pesky that way.” 

“Oh god.” Her shoulders slump over, her eyes wide with horror and fear. Pregnant. It’s a reasonable explanation for the nausea, the fatigue, the aching. What if she’s actually pregnant? 

“Look, it’s just a theory. But you sound a lot like Burgess when she was pregnant. If I were you, I’d check it out, just to make sure.” 

Hailey, still stunned, stares off into space as she nods at Trudy’s advice. “Ok. Ok, I can do that.” She shakes her head to snap herself out of it, flattens a few hairs that have escaped her ponytail. Trudy gives her a nod in solidarity and then returns to her work as Hailey heads for the stairs again, mail in hand. 

The amount of effort it takes her to psych herself back up enough to work as though nothing’s wrong is astonishing. She finds herself anxious the whole day; when she’s following a lead with Jay, when she’s doing paperwork. It’s exhausting having to walk on eggshells around everyone and it reminds her of her childhood, her and her brothers having to tiptoe around their father. 

As she drives back home, refusing to get ahead of herself. She takes deep breaths, calming herself down, then decides to take a sharp left turn into the drug store near her and Jay’s apartment. Walking into the aisle with pregnancy tests feels awkward. It’s almost like she’s undercover again, doing something covert that no one can know of yet. She grabs the first one she sees without really looking at the packaging all that much, then heads for the counter and pays as quickly as she can. The guy at the counter, Pedro, knows her since she makes frequent trips here for small stuff like bandaids and nail polish remover. She doesn’t make small talk with him this time though and pushes her way out of the line and to the public restrooms as fast as she can, dodging any questions or knowing glances. 

Her hands are almost shaking as she rips the test out of the package and follows the directions, waiting patiently for the results to show. It dawns on her that people using the women’s restroom might be getting frustrated with her, given the fact that she’s been tapping her foot against the hard tile for the past five minutes, but she doesn’t care. She picks the test up off of the sink, and her heart plummets into her stomach when she sees the two blue lines next to the number 8. 

She’s pregnant. Eight weeks pregnant. 

There are about a million ways to handle the situation. Instead of the usual crying, smiling, or laughing, however, Hailey opts to toss the packaging into the garbage can, stuff the test into her jacket pocket and walks out of the store, driving home like nothing ever happened. It’s this weird feeling she gets like she’s looking down on herself, watching her shock take over, and yet she can’t do anything about it. Her mind goes into denial, and she walks in through the door of their apartment casually. “Hey.”

Jay is sitting on the couch watching football when she enters, but turns the TV off and meets her halfway as she yanks her winter jacket off, pulling her in for a kiss. “Hi,” he hums into her lips. He kisses her again and for a moment, she lets herself get lost in how good it feels to kiss him, to have his arms around her waist pulling her closer to him. It’s warm and familiar; it’s comforting. “I thought you were coming home right away, what took you so long?” 

Hailey does the same hard swallow and sharp inhale. “Uh, I just got stuck in traffic,” she brushes it off. 

Jay nods, doesn’t think anything of it, and moves on to another completely different topic. “Hey, so about Christmas,” he starts. “I was thinking we could set the tree up this weekend, and then when Christmas Day comes we’ll have Kev and Adam and Kim over. We can open presents, have dinner. If we’re lucky, we’ll see Adam’s drunk rendition of Little Drummer Boy,” he chuckles. “What do you think?” 

Hailey’s nerves about pregnancy suddenly dissipate and are replaced with a plan forming in her head. Pregnancy tests aren’t always reliable, and her period is supposed to come in five days anyway (and to think she had groaned at the thought of having her period during Christmas), so if her period ends up not coming, she’ll tell him on Christmas Day. It’s not a foolproof plan, but it’s all she’s got. That way, if things don’t go the way she hopes, she can just blame it on her terrible track record with Christmas. Besides, watching Jay’s eyes light up at the idea of celebrating Christmas with her gives her hope that maybe this really is good news. Hailey bites her lip, thinking for a moment before responding, “That sounds perfect.” She leans in for another kiss, letting him take it even further and opens her mouth for his. His tongue swipes the inside of her cheek, his hands move up into her hair, and all is forgotten, put off until Christmas. 

The week goes by pretty fast. Christmas time is mostly heavy on misdemeanour crimes and small robberies so the Intelligence Unit doesn’t have many cases on their agenda. They wrap up things, and then their break arrives. Jay and Hailey set up the tree in their apartment, with big clunky ornaments and candy canes placed around the tree. Jay had told her during their first Christmas as a couple that he’d always liked it better that way and hated when Christmas trees had no personal touches to them, so they made sure to print out little ornaments with pictures of them together on them, took a bunch of Jay’s childhood ornaments, and even went to a craft show to buy some funky reindeer themed ornaments. Their tree ends up being far from aesthetically pleasing, but Jay’s right: it feels so much more personal. For once, Hailey sees a Christmas surrounding a life that actually makes her happy, and she loves it. Loves _him_. 

Hailey takes out all of her anxiety about the pregnancy into the decorations. Her morning sickness goes away, but her nerves still make her feel sick a lot of the time and her clothes feel a lot tighter than usual. Silver and gold tinsel is taped clumsily around their apartment walls and twinkle lights are hung up everywhere. She’s smart and had done all her Christmas shopping a month in advance, but she wraps her gifts pristinely, uses wrapping paper with snowflakes on it and adds silver ribbons and bows. She even hangs up mistletoe in their apartment. She doesn’t need an excuse to kiss Jay but she’s feeling messy. It’s not much, but it keeps her hands idle and her mind preoccupied. That is, until the five days are up and her period doesn’t come. 

Yep, Hailey Upton is most definitely pregnant. 

Maybe it’s that she’s just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Maybe she’s just used to having someone freaking out at her around this time of year, to setting her expectations low for Christmas. But Hailey’s nerves shoot up and down like a roller coaster all day on Christmas Eve thinking about the logistics of having a baby, especially in their line of work. Waiting until the next day to tell Jay about it is a nightmare too, and she wakes up with a sudden panicked realization. _Holy shit. She’s going to have a mini Halstead._ Part of her thinks Jay is going to be thrilled. He wants kids just as much as she does, that much she knows. They had both agreed that having a pesky kid or two to love unconditionally would be nice. But every time they’ve talked about it, which has been pretty minimal, it’s always been a question to answer down the road. Like, _way_ down the road. Hailey takes deep breaths, remembering the conversations about it, and suddenly it doesn’t seem so bad. She thinks of Jay and all of his hilarious stupidity, all of the moments where she quietly thought in the back of her head of how great he would be as a dad. For the first time since she had taken that test in the drug store bathroom, she smiles at the thought of their family growing by one person. If Hailey didn’t know any better, she’d say that she was getting less and less nervous. Excited, even. The sentiment feels unfamiliar, especially during a holiday she normally associates with disappointment and misery. 

Their Christmas Eve is fairly quiet. Hailey and Jay both sneak their presents under the tree. It’s easy to tell the difference between the two because Jay can’t wrap presents for shit, and Hailey laughs as half the ribbon he had used ends up falling off. She had gotten him a lot for Christmas, went overboard, really. But from the looks of it, so did he. Any quips about his crappy wrapping job are cut short by laughter at his sassy, defensive pouting and they move on to order Chinese takeout. Jay puts on Home Alone 2, jokes about how he’d be way better at fending off criminals than Kevin, and they snack on chocolate covered pretzels before falling asleep on the couch with the tacky, light-up Rudolph slippers Jay had gotten for them still on their feet. It’s not much, but it’s the life they have together. Just like Jay’s principle about the tree, it’s not fancy or pristine. It’s chaotic and fun and full of meaning. She wakes up the next morning, her head snuggled into Jay’s chest like it always is and her back hurting from sleeping in the same position on the couch the whole night. They wake up and the tree is still there, the presents waiting patiently under the tree. Looking over at her boyfriend makes Hailey snort a little. He had let his stubble grow out a little bit during the winter and even though he’s drooling all over the couch, Jay is a notoriously adorable sleeper. She smiles, ruffles his hair and starts to press quick pecks all over his face: his cheeks, his neck, his forehead. “Wake up, sleepyhead,” she chuckles. His grumbles are low and raspy as he slowly wakes up, looking around their living room. 

“So. Early.” He turns over on the couch, hitting his pillow to make himself more comfortable. Hailey grabs the pillow at the other end of the couch and whacks him across the face. 

“It’s not early, dummy, it’s nearly 10. And it’s Christmas Day, so get up.” His hands fly in front of his face two seconds too late and he ends up being defenseless against the playful wrath of the pillow, wincing as he takes the hits and Hailey straddles him while ambushing him with the pillows triumphantly.

“Alright, alright,” he sighs. She laughs as Jay groans and reluctantly sits up on the couch. “And Merry Christmas, Hails.” 

“Merry Christmas,” she replies. He smiles and rubs his eyes before pulling her in for a kiss. It’s sloppy and Hailey feels the two of them laughing against each other's lips, but she loves it. The nerves of telling him she’s pregnant have slowly dissipated away and are replaced with hope and excitement. Kissing Jay normally does that to her anyway, but it’s heightened this year and she finds herself getting emotional about it when she pulls away from the kiss. 

“Are you alright?” Jay shuffles in closer to her on the couch and wraps an arm around her shoulders, rubbing her back gently. “You look like you’re about to cry.” Clearly, she looks more emotional than she had expected, and it’s endearing to see how worried it makes him. 

“Yeah, yeah I’m alright. It’s just…” Baby hormones. Oh my god. The thought of it makes her begin to laugh nonstop, which seems to make him even more worried.

“Ok, I don’t really know what to do here. Are you laughing or crying?” 

“Laughing. Or both, I guess,” she explains as she realizes there are a few tears in the corners of her eyes and wipes them away. “I’m just really glad to be spending Christmas with you. I used to hate this holiday. It would always let me down, my father always freaked out.” Freaking out has become a euphemism for beating the crap out of her, her mom, and her siblings. Jay knows what it means, has heard the stories before, and Hailey feels his hand tense against her back slightly. “I guess I’m just not used to being so happy around this time of year, even after all these years.” 

Jay nods, and just. Gets it. Just like she gets him. The understanding they have as partners in their line of work also gives them a pretty solid foundation for their relationship, which Hailey is thankful for. And she knows now, looking at him, that everything will be alright. That this baby-- this tiny, little life of theirs growing inside of her-- is a good thing. A really good, pure, golden thing. A damn Christmas miracle. “I love you,” he whispers. 

“I love you too.” She kisses him again until she realizes they haven’t opened presents yet. “Come on, you’ve got presents to open.” 

“So do you. I’ll go make the hot chocolate.” He gets up and moves to the kitchen, reaching into the cupboards.

  
“You know me so well,” she gasps teasingly. She gets changed into a nicer pair of clothes that haven’t been slept in (and, preferably, leggings that comfortably stretch). It only takes him a few minutes until he’s pouring hot cocoa into the fun, Christmas-themed mugs and bringing them over to the small coffee table they have in front of their television. 

The gift opening goes by really quickly. Hailey watches his face light up at her gifts and feels her own face lighting up too. None of his presents will compare to the one she has to tell him about tonight though. Their friends are going to love it too, that much she’s optimistic about. Hailey slowly lets the hope sneak in as she had scarcely allowed herself to do before. And sitting on the floor next to the Christmas tree, sipping on hot cocoa, it’s just… perfect. Whatever happens after this, she’ll always have this morning as a memory at least. The whole ordeal leaves a mess though, so she spends more of the morning cleaning up the wrapping paper and gift bags and bows than she does actually opening presents. They prop up all of the cards they received from their distant relatives outside of Chicago, clean all of the ribbons off of their floor, and move to the hard part of Christmas Day: the cooking. 

Jay’s definitely not a chef, and neither is Hailey. But Hailey has a bunch of old family recipes and Jay swears there isn’t Christmas without a turkey. So, after they get cleaned up from the night before, he deals with the turkey while Hailey starts putting her own Greek spin on Christmas dinner. It ends up being divided up pretty evenly in terms of the work they need to do, so they both get their food in the oven and fridge at the same time. It takes them a large portion of the afternoon though, and so she and Jay are still in the process of setting the table and cleaning up the mess they left in the kitchen when Adam, Kevin, and Kim knock eagerly at their door. 

“It’s unlocked, come on in,” Hailey shouts out from the kitchen. She hears someone fiddling with the doorknob, then her friends pouring through the door with bright smiles plastered on their faces. 

“Merry Christmas you guys!” Kim comes in first, and hangs her coat up on the coat rack, heading straight for Hailey. The hug Kim gives her is so tight that Hailey almost has the urge to tell her not to squish the baby that’s growing inside of her now. Kim is going to be so excited for them, she thinks. Kim and Adam’s kid, Logan, is almost a year old now, and they love that little guy to bits. Although, she suspects she’ll have to ask for the name of whatever amazing sitter who agreed to babysit their kid on Christmas Day. That sort of dedication is something Hailey will definitely want for her and Jay’s kid. _God, how is she so excited and so scared at the same time?_

“It smells great in here, man,” Adam calls out from the coat rack. Hailey can see the cocky gleam in Jay’s eyes. It’s the turkey that smells so good and she just _knows_ that the compliment is going straight to Jay’s head. 

“Yeah, what are you cooking up in here?” Kevin walks in with gifts in his arms stacked up to his shoulders, drops them down under the tree and then races into their kitchen. Adam has his and Kim’s gifts and follows Kevin’s example ad Kevin peeks into the oven, gasping at the turkey. “That looks delicious.” 

“Thanks, Kev. This one over here,” he explains, pointing at Hailey, “didn’t think I could do it did you, babe?” 

“Ah well it’s hard to expect you to cook a turkey when you have the same amount of brain cells as one,” she quips back. Jay holds a hand to his chest in fake agony and winces as Adam whistles, amused. 

“Careful, those are fighting words, Hailey,” Kevin laughs. 

“Don’t I know it,” she teases. 

Everybody gets settled in pretty quickly, and Kim starts playing Christmas music on the speaker system they have set up in their apartment. It doesn’t take long for Jay to pull out almost all of the alcohol in their cupboard and let everyone choose whatever they want. Adam cracks open a beer from the fridge, pulls an extra one out and hands it to Hailey. “You want one?”

Her hand instinctively reaches out for it but she retracts it awkwardly, remembering the little human growing in her. “No thanks, actually. I’m good.” 

Adam’s brows immediately furrow; Hailey isn’t really the type of person to refuse alcohol, especially on a special occasion like Christmas. “You sure?” 

“Yeah. Can't have me getting to drunk to remember your awful rendition of Little Drummer Boy,” she brushes it off with a joke. "can we?" 

“No ma’am,” he chuckles. He remembers the whole incident, even has it on video, so the excuse is valid enough for him and he drops it. “And I think you mean my _amazing_ rendition. I killed that song.” 

“Alright,” Jay announces before Hailey can reply to Adam, clapping his hands together. It’s very host-like, and it makes Hailey giggle a little. “The turkey’s not going to be done for another hour, so do you guys want to do presents now or later?” 

“Now,” Kim replies eagerly. “Adam and I kind of crushed it in the gift department this year.” The guys shrug in their typical _guy behaviour_ , impartial to either option. 

“Gifts it is,” Hailey nods. 

They’re all gathering around the tree when Hailey hears knocking at the door. She looks around the room, confused. Everyone they invited is there and she doesn’t know who would be knocking on Christmas Day, so when the knocking continues and everyone else stares at the door, it throws her for a loop. “We’re not expecting anyone else, are we?” She turns to Jay, her brow quizzical. 

“Uh, yeah about that,” Jay starts while wincing, his voice cautious. “That’s actually your last present, Hails. It would have come sooner but uh... something about delivery service delays." He shrugs a little too casually and Hailey knows he has something up his sleeve. _He’s not the only one_ , she thinks. He scratches the back of his neck as he walks over to the door and nervously opens it. Their door swings open and Hailey’s jaw drops to the floor. 

Vanessa Rojas is standing right in front of her. 

Hailey doesn’t believe her own eyes. Vanessa had left years ago after getting some offers from a task force in Indiana. She had visited fairly frequently at first but life just caught up to the both of them, in the way it always does. It’s been years since she’s seen her old friend and former roommate face to face and still, seeing her there with the endearing smile on her face and a bag of presents in one hand, it feels like an eternity. 

“Hey Hailey,” she beams. 

“Vanessa?” Vanessa’s bag of presents drops to the ground as Hailey closes the space between them and practically runs into a hug, her arms wrapping around her extra tight to make sure that she’s real and Hailey’s not just dreaming. “I can’t believe you’re here! It’s been too long.” She holds onto Vanessa, still in shock. 

“I know,” Vanessa squeals back. “I’ve missed you, roomie.” Hailey pulls away, rubbing her eyes to stop the tears at the corners of her eyes from falling. It’s easy to blame pregnancy hormones, but Hailey knows it’s a lie: she just really missed her friend. 

“I’ve missed you too,” she replies. “How are you even here?”

“Well, Jay called me up and asked me to come and surprise you for the holidays. He said he’d pay for my ticket, put me in a hotel and everything. He had me at ‘surprise you,’ but hey, I never refuse a free trip to Chicago. And after hearing that you two are dating, I knew I had to see for myself. I totally called it, by the way,” she whispers to Hailey jovially. 

“Wait, you would have come for free? That plane ticket was like three hundred bucks,” he groans, interjecting into the conversation. 

“You did this?” Hailey turns to Jay who’s still standing near the doorway, watching the whole reunion go down. 

“Yeah,” he nods bashfully, “I just- I wanted to make sure you had a great Christmas this year. You deserve it, Hails.” 

Hailey doesn’t reply at first, and eventually only responds by cupping Jay’s face with her hands and kissing him hard on the lips. Their lips crash, and it’s messy and intense. She pulls away, breathing heavily. “I love you.” 

“I love you too,” he replies without missing a beat, his face beaming with joy. It’s a good look on him, Hailey thinks. All she can hope for now is that he’ll react to jer news the same way. And with Vanessa there, it’s one more person she has to tell, so her nerves are definitely back now. 

Their moment is only interrupted by Vanessa cheering enthusiastically. “Whoo! That’s what I’m talking about. Power couple right there,” she nods, moving her presents to the Christmas tree. Adam and Kim get up from the couch to greet her, giving her a big group hug. Kim shows her a picture of Logan in a onesie that she has as the lock screen on the phone and Vanessa immediately fawns over the picture. Hailey has to admit, for all of the trouble it took for them to have one, Kim and Adam sure did seem to make a damn cute baby. Hailey and Jay make their way back to their living room as Jay moves to talk with Adam and Vanessa moves to say hi to Kevin. The awkwardness sets in between the two almost immediately after she pulls away from hugging him for one second too long, and Hailey can just tell that she’s missed him. “Hi.” Her smile is bittersweet, and Kevin looks nervous and if Hailey didn’t know any better, _shy_. 

“Hey.” Hailey can see his chest rise as he takes a sharp breath in. She rolls her eyes. Even she and Jay weren’t _this_ bad. Something has to be done about this. 

Through some Christmas miracle, her prayers are answered because, after a few minutes of chatting, Vanessa and Kevin move towards the kitchen and end up right under the mistletoe that Hailey had hung up earlier. _Perfect_. 

“Uh-oh,” she singsongs playfully, pointing Vanessa and Kevin’s attention to the mistletoe hanging above them. Kim, Adam, and Jay all turn their attention towards the scene and start laughing hysterically. 

“Looks like you’re in trouble, Kev,” Adam calls out from the couch. 

Hailey watches as Kevin’s eyes go bug-eyed and he blushes. Vanessa blushes too, looking down at her feet while laughing dryly. “I’ve only been here for twenty minutes! You guys are children,” she chuckles, still flustered. 

“Hey, the rules are the rules: you have to kiss,” Hailey points out, loudly tapping her foot and crossing her arms. “I’m waiting here.”

“Jay?” Kevin looks over to Jay waiting for him to intervene. 

All Jay does is shake his head as he organizes the gifts into piles for each person, hardly looking up from the floor. “She was feeling messy, man.” Hailey feels a sensation of triumph and pride swell in her chest. He knows better than to get involved in this. _Maybe Jay’s smart after all_ , she thinks slyly. 

Kevin sighs in defeat when his friend is of no help to him. But his eyes lock with Vanessa’s, and something just clicks there. She pulls him in with a fistful of his shirt in her hand and kisses him softly on the cheek, her lips lingering just one second too long before she pulls away. Kevin clears his throat loudly, and Vanessa laughs, trying to act casual. “There, happy?” 

Adam snorts from the couch, trying to suppress a laugh. Jay looks at Kevin, stunned at the scene, but Kim, being the only smart one in the room, takes the awkward silence as a cue to move on. “Ok, now that that’s over with,” she starts, “I was promised we’d open gifts twenty minutes ago and there is no way I’m waiting another twenty minutes. You guys take longer than the idiots in the crime lab. So come on, gifts!” She bounces up and down on the couch and then settles down as everyone laughs, moving to their respective pile of presents that Jay had organized for everyone. 

Jay and Hailey already opened their gifts for each other, but they still pass around the ones they’d bought for everyone. A twinge of guilt itches at Hailey’s brain for not having bought a gift for Vanessa, but she swears to her that a weekly phone call from Hailey will be enough, and since Jay had planned her arrival he had the common sense to get a gift from the both of them, so it’s forgotten. Since everyone else apparently knew about Vanessa’s surprise visit, they have gifts for her, so Hailey takes comfort in the fact that she won’t be left out. The guys open their presents by ripping and shredding and tearing, whereas Kim sits at her spot on the couch carefully peeling off the tape and sliding her presents out of their wrapping paper. Vanessa starts cleaning up all of the tissue paper and ribbon, as per usual. Hailey still remembers the days when they were living together, how Vanessa’s foster care days ingrained in her the need to leave as little mess as possible. It fills her with a sense of nostalgia that feels so warm and familiar. Even after three years, Vanessa fits in with their group with so much ease that it’s impossible not to want her to stay forever. 

Kim and Adam really did kill it in the gift department. On top of their regular gifts-- a case of the fancy beer they only buy on special occasions, warm mittens for Hailey’s hands that are always cold, one of those blankets with sleeves-- everyone also gets their own drawings, hand-drawn by Logan. Crooked cats and flowers and bright green, scribbled grass fill each page, with little messages written on the back. The writing is the neatest thing on the page; clearly, Kim had scribed for her son while he told her whatever message he wanted to be put on the drawings for his favourite aunts and uncles. It’s tooth-achingly sweet and adorable, and Jay looks ecstatic at seeing his: a drawing of him next to a big monster truck. 

Their gift opening is coming to an end when they hear the timer on their oven buzzing. Jay starts to get up to tend to the turkey, Adam and Kevin following behind him. Hailey can hear the shouts from the kitchen as they get out the fancy electric carver Kevin had bought Jay for Christmas (Jay had been talking obsessively over the last few weeks about this turkey so Kevin apparently got the hint) and start carving into the turkey, yelling things like “vanquish the beast!” and “die, scoundrel!” as the electric blade whirrs and roars. Vanessa, Kim, and Hailey all exchange amused looks and, once the guys are done goofing off, they make their way towards the kitchen. Hailey takes a deep breath in, preparing herself for what she has to tell Jay and the others. She’s been putting it off the whole day and it can’t be done anymore.

It’s time. 

She takes a deep breath in as Jay approaches her, a tea towel flung over his shoulder. “Hey, the turkey’s ready.”

“Okay,” she nods, “but I have another gift for you first.” She motions for Kevin, Adam, and the girls to listen up. “You guys should all be here for this too, actually. Seems as good a time as any.” 

Everyone seems intrigued and they lean against the counters and tables as they watch Jay and Hailey, standing nearby. Jay steps in closer, puts a hand up to rub the elbow of her crossed arms. “Oh man, another gift? This day just keeps getting better and better.” He kisses her on the cheek excitedly and then rubs his hands together. “Alright, what is it?” 

“Ok,” she exhales nervously. “Now, this is a big thing, so you have to tell me right away if you don’t want it, okay?” 

“Okay,” he nods, his foot tapping impatiently. 

“I mean it, Jay.” Hailey points a warning finger at him to make sure he knows she’s serious. “It’s not exactly refundable after nine months so you have to be absolutely sure that you want this. Because I do.”

“Just let it out already,” Vanessa shouts from the kitchen, “I’m on the edge of my seat here!” 

Jay ignores Vanessa and looks at Hailey as he replies, “Hailey, I promise whatever it is, I’m going to love it.” His eyes meet her to make sure she knows he means it. And he does _really_ mean it, that much she can tell. So, she takes a deep breath in and prepares to tell him the two little words that will change their lives forever. 

Looking around her, she sees an extra bow in the pile of scrunched up ribbons and wrapping paper. It’s bright red and the tape on the bottom of it is still sticky, so she grabs it. “Good,” she replies, “because it’s sort of a lifelong commitment.” She presses the bow onto her shirt until the tape sticks to it, the bow now hanging on the area of her shirt right over her stomach. It’s cheesy, but it’s all she could come up with and, in the moment, being cute about it seems like the right way to go.

Everyone else picks up on it almost immediately. She hears Vanessa gasp from the kitchen counter, sees Adam and Kim’s eyes go wide with shock out of the corner of her eye. “Oh damn,” Kevin mumbles, stunned. Hailey’s eyes are still fixed on Jay though. His expression is more confused than anything, and she doesn’t know what to make of that. 

“Is this… is this like a sex thing? I’m confused,” he leans in, still confused, to avoid Kevin, Adam, and Kim from hearing. 

They end up hearing it anyway and respond with snickers and giggles. “You know, you're pretty dumb for a guy who's supposed to be a detective,” Adam quips to Jay from his spot at the kitchen, hiding his knowing smirk. Kim punches his shoulder to shut him up. Clearly, she understands the seriousness of the moment more than Adam does, but the humour of Jay not understanding isn’t lost on Kim either and she soon gets that same smirk on her face that Adam has. They’re all happy for her, which gives her enough relief and hope to tell Jay. 

Hailey takes the tea towel off of Jay’s shoulder and whips him with it playfully, her face scrunched up. “No, you idiot,” she retorts before getting serious again. “I’m… I’m pregnant.”

Jay snorts, laughing at what he thinks is a joke. She looks at him dead in the eyes though, and when she doesn’t burst into laughter or tells him it’s a prank, his face slowly droops into a more serious expression and he stops laughing. Jay swallows hard when met with Hailey’s weak, nervous smile. “You’re serious?” 

“Yep,” she nods, inhaling sharply. 

“And you’re… you’re sure?” 

“Yep. Eight weeks pregnant. Nine now, actually.” The words feel so strange coming out of her mouth, and she realizes it’s because she’s never said them out loud to anyone before. As proof, she pulls out the pregnancy test from the previous week, now in a ziplock bag, and shows it to him. “It wasn’t the crab that made me sick the other week.” The room goes silent for what feels like an eternity, their friends waiting in anticipation for Jay to react, or even form a coherent sentence or two. The pit in Hailey’s stomach starts to form again and she begins to backtrack. “This doesn’t mean we have to get married or anything-- I already like our life together-- and if you don’t want a baby then that’s fine, I just--” 

“This is amazing.” Her sentence is cut short by his sweet, relieving words and she watches as his face slowly lights up, his smile beaming and stretching at his cheeks. 

Before she can say anything, he’s smiling and chuckling in disbelief, pulling her in and hugging her. His arms wrap around her waist and her feet lift off the ground, Jay spinning them around briefly. His face is snuggled into her shoulder and she can feel his laughter rattling against her skin as their friends cheer and shout joyfully, their voices seemingly far away. It’s the best feeling in the world until the spinning makes her dizzy and nauseous. “Woah,” she giggles, signaling for him to put her down. He does, and she keeps laughing when she sees his face still ecstatic like a toddler on Christmas. 

His hands rake through his hair in disbelief. “Oh my god,” he laughs. “Oh my god… we’re having a baby?” 

“We’re having a baby,” she reaffirms, smiling. God, she didn’t even know she could smile so much. It hurts in the best ways possible. 

Jay’s still smiling as he cups her face with his hands and kisses her hard. His lips are soft against hers, his hands gentle and warm and covered with the familiar scent of turkey. Hailey doesn’t remember a time before this where she’d felt so happy during the holidays. It’s the best present she could ever have, just her, Jay, and whatever little monster is kicking inside of her. “I love you,” he whispers, smiling and out of breath. 

“I love you too,” she replies. She whispers it back even more softly than he does, but it feels louder than anything she’s ever said. Jay presses his lips to hers again, giving her three more firm, excited pecks before pulling away. Their friends are still cheering, but their voices sound closer now as Kevin, Adam, Kim, and Vanessa all crowd around them and squish together for a group hug. “Cheers to happiness in the coming year, for the happy couple!” Adam laughs through the excited squealing as he lifts his beer up and cheers.

It’s ridiculous, really, how scared she was of telling them about it before. Especially Jay. She watches the pure joy on his face and laughs at the thought of Jay ever being upset about it. Because of course he would be happy to be a family, even without being married to her. Jay Halstead is many things, and supportive is definitely one of them. Standing there, watching Jay and their friends celebrate the thing she had been nervous about for the last week, she finds it almost comical. There was never a need to be worried. After all, why be worried about becoming a family with the person who’s already closer to family than Hailey’s ever had? 

It’s all Hailey could have ever asked for, really. She wipes her tears away, too emotional to do much else other than to smile and laugh. Kim starts coming in with supportive, helpful pregnancy tips almost immediately and Hailey nods as she takes in all of the information, ripping the now crushed, crumpled up Christmas bow off of her shirt. Jay pulls out his phone at that time and shouts out, “Alright, squish together you idiots. I gotta get a picture!” Everyone huddles together as Jay puts his camera on selfie mode and extends his arm out as far as he can. Hailey snuggles into Jay’s side with his spare arm wrapped around her, their friends piling in next to her and flashing their smiles. “Alright, now say _#1 future dad!”_

Jay takes the picture just as Adam reaches over everyone’s heads to playfully swing at him, ready to fight him for the title of best dad before her and Jay’s kid is even born. The button clicks at the perfect time, capturing Vanessa staring bewilderingly at Adam’s arm flying over her head, Kevin covering Vanessa’s head with his arm, Kim rolling her eyes at Jay’s bad joke and Adam’s reaction to it. It also captures the minute Hailey looks away from the camera at Jay, a goofy smile plastered across her face and her eyes glossy from tears of joy. Jay hasn’t registered Adam’s fist flying towards him yet in the shot, so he’s still staring at Hailey with that wildly intense sparkle in his eye, the tiniest, sweet smile creeping onto his lips. 

Jay’s showing her the picture when the timer for the turkey goes off, indicating that it’s finally cooled off a bit. Kevin heads immediately for the table, rubbing his hands together. “Alright people, let’s eat! I’m starving and this food looks delicious.” He starts peaking at some of Hailey’s greek dishes and Kim asks for the recipe as soon as she smells it. Hailey makes her way back over to the kitchen, Jay’s hand on the small of her back as they walk together. 

They tell everyone to dig in, and her and Jay settle down in their spots at the table next to each other. Hungry stomachs are filled and the sounds of happy eaters fill their kitchen with a warm, glowing silence as everyone enjoys the dinner before them. Hailey has to admit, the turkey was a good idea and Jay cooked it perfectly. Everyone’s mouths are stuffed with delicious, steaming food as Jay leans over and nudges Hailey in between bites to get her attention. She turns and leans in, blushes when he starts by taking her hand in his, their fingers intertwined. “I love you, Hails,” he whispers. 

“I know,” she laughs. “You already said that.”

“And I meant it,” he replies without missing a beat. “Saying it once is never enough. Not with you. And certainly not now that we’ve got a little monster on the way,” he chuckles, his hand flying to her stomach and touching it tenderly. God, she thinks. Even after three years, it feels like she’s an idiot in high school crushing over a boy. It’s embarrassingly sweet, the way he just… _loves_ her all the time. 

“I love you too,” she whispers, getting choked up. These damn baby hormones are making her cry ten times more than she normally does and it’s driving her crazy. She laughs, blinking back any tears. 

Jay smiles at her, biting the bottom of his lip, before turning back to his dinner and picking up his fork to eat. His spare hand stays intertwined with hers, but he points to her half-empty plate, looking at the food. “You better eat up, you’re eating for two now,” he nods, the typical Jay Halstead concern plastered all over his face.

“Well according to Kim, the baby is only the size of a raspberry right now, so I think I’ll be fine babe,” she giggles. 

“Our baby is the size of a raspberry? Wow,” he realizes, “that still feels so weird to say. _Our baby._ ” 

“I know,” Hailey agrees, knowing full well the absolute insanity of it all. She still can’t quite believe it herself, doesn’t believe she could be so happy. “It’s crazy." 

“I like the sound of it,” Jay decides after a moment’s thought. 

“Me too.” Hailey smiles sweetly, nods along in agreement. "I wonder how Voight's going to react to it," she thinks out loud. "I mean, I'm not exactly thrilled to have to take so much time off of work and I can't imagine he will be either.”

"He's Voight, he'll be happy for us. And pissed over losing one of his best detectives for a few months," Jay jokes. 

"One of? I think you mean _the_ best detective," she quips back. He nods along while chuckling, his chest shaking with laughter. 

They turn back to their friends again, hopping into the conversations taking place. From outside their window, they can see the snow falling gently on the streets of Chicago as Hailey smiles and talks with her friends. With her family. Catching up with Vanessa about her job, hearing Kim still ecstatic about the pregnancy and suddenly very protective over Hailey, joking around with Adam and Kevin and dismissing their awful baby names (Adam suggests the name Drizzle and Hailey nearly slaps him). If Christmas made her this happy every year, it’s definitely a holiday she could get used to.

Eventually, everyone is full from dinner, which Hailey didn’t think was possible because Adam could probably eat a horse if he really worked at it. They all gather around her and Jay’s fireplace, taking spots on the floor and the couch while they watch Elf, another classic Christmas movie. Halfway through the movie, Adam and Kim leave, as they only had the babysitter until 9. Vanessa stays until the end of the movie and, not at all surprisingly to Hailey, Kevin stays only for as long as she does. Things sort of fizzle out a while after the movie, and Vanessa squeezes her tight. She promises to visit again the next day, then is met with Kevin gallantly holding her coat out for her and pulling it up over her shoulders. The two stand together near Hailey and Jay’s doorway awkwardly before she and Jay show them out, wishing them a good night as they wave goodbye and congratulate them once more on the baby. 

Their night gets cozy and quiet after that. They go to bed late and Jay is out like a light in a matter of minutes. Hailey stays up for a while, pulls out her phone and stares at the selfie they had taken together. After a while of staring at it, she decides it just might be her favourite picture yet. She might not have had a family to support her and love her as a kid, but she has one now. It’s a family connected not by blood but through heart, and it’s one she wouldn’t trade for the world 

_And_ , she realizes as she lies in bed that night with Jay and her hand grazes her stomach, _it’s about to grow by one more._


End file.
